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Websleuths News

Join Websleuths Radio for the final discussion of THE KILLING SEASON
with Josh Zemam, Rachel Mills and special guests including Bob Kolker author of Lost Girls

CA - Mimi Boomhower, 48, Los Angeles, 18 Aug 1949

"Boomhower last talked to a friend from her home in Los Angeles, California on August 18, 1949. The friend had telephoned between 7 and 8 p. m. to discuss an approaching social event. After the call, Boomhower changed her dress and tossed the discarded garment on her bed. She left her car in the garage and an uneaten salad on the dining room table. Then she disappeared.
Mrs. Boomhower's white handbag was found in a telephone booth at a supermarket in Los Angeles five days after she disappeared. Scrawled in ink on a side of the purse was this message: Police Dept.—we found this at beach Thursday night." . That was the night of her disappearance. In the purse were a credit card , driver's license, car keys, compact and lipstick. The purse showed no evidence of exposure to sand or salt water"

It's good to see more very old cold cases being posted. Now that we have sites like the The Doe Network and the Charley Project (and of course, Websleuths!) these cases have more of a chance of being solved. It may be a very small chance due to the passage of time but it is always good to get these cases "out there". The news media mainly cares for recent cases and these old ones get forgotten.

I've seen some on this before by Steve Hodel. I'm not convinced about his Dahlia theory, but either way, it's hard to me to picture Mimi being connected to Beth Short's murder. Nothing about them seems to fit, expect they are nearby and occurred within a couple of years of each other.

Mainly I keep coming back the way Short's body was splayed out for someone to find very quickly, yet no sign of Mimi. The Dahlia killer then contacted the media, sending them items, etc. Short was young, Mimi middle-aged.

However, anything's possible. Either way, this is a very interesting case. And creepy, too, with the uneaten salad. It sounds as if she was taken from her home or she was on her way to her car with her purse and someone grabbed her. I wonder if any of the jewelry she was wearing when she disappeared ever surfaced.

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: circa 1901
Age at Time of Disappearance: 48 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: According to reports, she was considered "plump". She always wore big diamonds.
Clothing: She was wearing $25,000 worth of jewelry — a diamond breast pin , a diamond-encrusted bracelet and two diamond rings.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Boomhower last talked to a friend from her home in Los Angeles, California on August 18, 1949. The friend had telephoned between 7 and 8 p. m. to discuss an approaching social event. After the call, Boomhower changed her dress and tossed the discarded garment on her bed. She left her car in the garage and an uneaten salad on the dining room table. Then she disappeared.

Mrs. Boomhower's white handbag was found in a telephone booth at a supermarket in Los Angeles five days after she disappeared. Scrawled in ink on a side of the purse was this message: Police Dept.—we found this at beach Thursday night." . That was the night of her disappearance. In the purse were a credit card , driver's license, car keys, compact and lipstick. The purse showed no evidence of exposure to sand or salt water.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Possible scenario...

With so little to go on, there is certainly a lot of room to speculate as to possible scenarios.

My thought is that Mimi was murdered for her Jewelry and perhaps for cash that she was carrying, as there is no mention of her home being ransacked, and her car was still there.

The most likely scenario is that someone, who knew her and her love of wearing expensive jewelry had offered her a ride to the event. He may have arrived a bit early, interrupting her supper, and causing her to dress quickly for the party. From her home, he took her somewhere, killed her, took her cash and jewelry and disposed of her body.

The purse may have been dropped or dumped and found by persons who did not wish to be involved or known to police and the killer. Thus the story of finding it at the beach. The person who wrote the note knew more about the case.

It is certainly possible that someone wanted Mimi killed for other reasons, but lacking any other information, the above scenario is the most logical one I can come up with.

Knowing more about the specific jewelry would be an important clue in the case.

Distinguishing Characteristics: According to reports, she was considered "plump". She always wore big diamonds.

Clothing: She was wearing $25,000 worth of jewelry — a diamond breast pin , a diamond-encrusted bracelet and two diamond rings.

Circumstances of DisappearanceBoomhower last talked to a friend from her home in Los Angeles, California on August 18, 1949. The friend had telephoned between 7 and 8 p. m. to discuss an approaching social event. After the call, Boomhower changed her dress and tossed the discarded garment on her bed. She left her car in the garage and an uneaten salad on the dining room table. Then she disappeared.
Mrs. Boomhower's white handbag was found in a telephone booth at a supermarket in Los Angeles five days after she disappeared. Scrawled in ink on a side of the purse was this message: Police Dept.—we found this at beach Thursday night." . That was the night of her disappearance. In the purse were a credit card , driver's license, car keys, compact and lipstick. The purse showed no evidence of exposure to sand or salt water.

Here's another Websleuths link on this lady. Apparently there was a theory about her disappearance being connected with the Black Dahlia's. This was first brought up, I believe by Steve Hodel, the retired police officer who thinks his father murdered the Black Dahlia. I don't really give much credence to that theory but it's interesting nonetheless. http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45170

i dont really buy that someone would pick up her purse off the beach and leave it in a phone booth for the police to find. that seems way too suspicious. maybe the kidnapper was trying to throw the police off?

There is another thread on Mimi-can the mods merge it?
On the surface, there seems to be nothing to connect Mimi’s disappearance with that of Elizabeth Short, but, starting with Georgette Bauerdorf and maybe ending in the early 50s, there were an awful lot of LA women disappearing, being murdered, etc. all in a way that seems to be connected to the Dahlia killing.